Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 15, 2013 - 10:02pm PT
Any recent escapes to be grateful for while climbing or just living out your daily day?
Tonight after work I went to get popcorn at our local Vons grocery store.
I'd enjoyed a great day at work and was looking forward to the beautiful, warm evening.
After making the popcorn purchase I walked out of Vons headed toward the parking lot. As I walked into the parking lot, I looked both ways to make sure cars were behaving.
WHOA!!! What I saw next was crazy.... right next to me, two police cars with at least one officer outside starting to draw his weapon at a big white pickup truck with me pretty close to both. At the same time the truck takes off, pedal totally to the metal holding it hard.
I sprinted to my van. Truck missed me and I'm happy to report my aliveness.
You never know....love the ones you love and enjoy the one day you have.
I have had TWO close calls in the last year, Lynne.
Both non-fatal but both about 30 MPH into stationary cars less than 5 feet away from where I am driving (#1) or waiting for a light (#2). Both instances were in the lane next to me. LA is craz-ee! You gotta be whole lotta aggro defensive driver in the SF Valley, yo.
Reminds me how moments can change so fast. It is a odd type of mortality check...
Thanks, I'd take my measured risks in the outdoors anytime. City life is crazy.....no predictability. Have fun on your bike. Cheers, lynne
Jim Brennan: Dude, Pearl Jam is knarly. Leader throwin' down the equipment on stage and the crowd throwin' peeps up in the air, yo....think I was safer with the po-lice and the bandits.
I was never a huge fan but this song had a pungent release at around the same time Cobain thought it best to cash out.
The people being tossed around were gleeful participants of life by trusting themselves to be carried by a crowd. That's not always what happens when you take a chance on crowd surfing.
The greatest thing about a great concert is how you come out the other end.
was just out back in the snow, singing a sweet thank you to the good lord god, about this very thing...
had my few episodes, too, so i know what you mean...
thanks for the 'let's remember our times here are specail' note, dear lynne!
say, moosedrool... something though, the pain let's us know that there
is a far better reason for life, than we know of...
so we keep on keeping on, and we see far more in the whole scheme, later...
Seriously... I am happy to be alive, to survive my stupidity and to have this chance for doing better. Plus I am happy for the folks that step in front of my truck when my brakes work, etc. Life is weird, good, painful and worth it.
Last Friday I was heading to Flagstaff after work. Totally clean and sober. I'm driving in to a storm, just rain so far, no problem.
Then I notice this big black cloud up ahead is producing lightning, pretty unusual for this time of year, cool. When the hailstones started hitting my windshield, I reached down to turn on the wipers.
When I glanced back up, something wasn't quite right. Then I realized I was sliding out of control, going about 60, with oncoming traffic. It seems that those pesky little hailstones had piled up an inch or so in that cloudburst.
So there I am, wildly fish-tailing from one side of the highway to the other, trying desperately to regain control, the oncoming traffic is getting closer. Finally, in order to avoid a head-on collision I ditch it off the right side of the road. I know what is going to happen, I'm still going way too fast, I brace for it, white knuckling the steering wheel as the van begins to roll. I go all the way over once, then come to rest on the driver's side.
I'm pissed off, I wave off a would be rescuer and extricate myself from the wreckage and begin surveying the damages. It isn't until about an hour later that I begin to realize that even though the van was likely totalled (and it was), I had walked away from this crash without a single scratch, bruise, broken fingernail, or anything.
Not only am I glad to be alive, I am extremely lucky to be alive.
Plus, I didn't like that van all that much to begin with . . .
Let us know!